Q&A Meat digitally savvy and spatially aware
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MICK KEOGH: Yes, we have. We released them in the form of an interim report in November, and since then, there's been a fair bit of engagement. We have certainly listened to the responses from industry groups. It would be wrong of me to say that they're all in furious agreement, but we still think that the recommendations we've made are appropriate to address some of the issues that were raised.
SPEAKER 1: Other questions? I know it's the end of a long couple of days. We're all overloaded with information. Just one. Anna, we were talking about the future of saleyards in the lot of auctions. What's a comment from you on that?
ANNA SPEER: I always get asked this question. I think people think I'm going to say there's going to be no saleyards in 10 years' time. I think the future saleyards is we're going to continue to see consolidation of saleyards, as we have for the past 40 years. I'd say that we'll end up with about 10 big selling facilities around Australia and they'll all be diversifying if they're going to survive. So they won't just be your traditional saleyard selling facility.
They'll be looking at other things that they can use, whether it's around fertiliser, waste management systems, things that they can start to generate, other revenue streams with. And hopefully, also, work with online places like ourselves so that we can enhance competition. But look at ways in which we can even channel small mobs of animals and create multi-vendor listings to create more competition. So I think there are some really cool things that could happen there, but I think there's some big challenges as to whether or not we will be able to work collaboratively.
SPEAKER 1: Thank you. Has that stimulated anybody with a question?
ANNA SPEER: I think there's one.
SPEAKER 1: Oh, sorry, lady there. I'm sorry. I couldn't see.
DEB KERR: Deb Kerr from "Australian Pork." My question's for Anna. I'm just interested if you've done any demographics on your buyers and sellers on your system. I'd just be interested in whether you've got any information on that.
ANNA SPEER: We do. Not to a hugely detailed level. Something that we've been really focusing on over the past 12 months is getting control of our data. But a couple of little facts. About 80% of our buyers are producers. We've seen a huge rise in producers getting online and actually purchasing on their own behalf. And then they'll either manage the transaction themselves or they will do it-- they'll use a buying agent to manage the transaction.
We sell about 90% store stock, 10% prime stock. So we do have all the big buyers there from a processing and a feed perspective. But it is only a small portion of our market.
SPEAKER 1: Other questions? Just one that I have for James. James, I'm just interested in the NRM spatial hub stuff. And somebody who basically started the microcomputer industry in Australia in the early '80s for agriculture. It's amazing to see how it's come to where it is now. But I understand that the next iteration is really overlaying onto that, some climate predictive data. How do you see that interface occurring?
JAMES BOLAND: We've been able to build some macro separate from the NRM Spatial Hub. So we can pull data sets out of NRM and put them into some models that we've built ourselves. So we've got some management strategies based on predictive data around buyer mass and predominantly the IOD that we have is from Bureau of Met.
So we've got a couple of triggers. And if we hit those triggers, we'll start to react in the market in a predictive sense. And I can't see any reason why what we've developed as a primary producer couldn't be embedded in the NRM Spatial Hub. I think it's absolutely possible that some of those decision making triggers-- and I keep coming back to the word predictive, rather than being reactive and waiting until there's no feed and then trying to sell in a saturated market. There should be no reason why the NRM Spatial Hub couldn't give you those predictive tools.
SPEAKER 1: Right. Thanks, James.
JAMES BOLAND: Absolutely.
SPEAKER 1: That's good. Well, I'm going to actually let you go early. I just want make a couple of comments. First of all, to thank the panel. Would you join with me in thanking them via acclamation?
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